Businesses Not Interested in Absorbing Costs for Healthcare Reform

As for a pay-of-play mandate:

• 37% of employers say they would provide company-sponsored health coverage that substantially exceeds the standard.


• 29% of employers would discontinue company-sponsored health coverage and pay the assessment if the per-employee costs of payments to the federal government were substantially lower than their current costs.


• 26% would provide company-sponsored health coverage at the level of the minimum standard required.

"In some industries, particularly those with low margins and lower-income/high-turnover employee populations, some companies would, under a mandate, choose to write a check to the government and allow employees to purchase coverage in a reformed market for individual health insurance," noted Fontanetta. "For example, fully 42% of retail companies in the survey said they would close their plans and pay a federal assessment, versus 28% of those in financial services and 24% of those in technology/telecommunications."